GREEN BAY (NBC26) — One beauty supply store owner says any tariffs the Trump administration places on China, Canada and Mexico will impact her business.
- Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico
- The tariff policies against Canada and Mexico on hold, but as of Monday evening the tariffs against China are expected to go into place on Tuesday
- Meet the owner of Ana's Fashion and Beauty Supply in Green Bay
- A St. Norbert economics professor says what remains to be seen is if the tariffs are a long-term policy decision by the Trump administration or a political negotiation tactic to be used in the short term
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story. Ana Maria Ortega's quotations were first spoken in Spanish and have been translated for this web story.)
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.
The tariffs on our neighbors to the north and south are now on hold, but if they eventually go through, one Green Bay beauty supply store owner says her business is sure to feel the effects.
Ana Maria Ortega says she has owned Ana's Fashion and Beauty Supply in Green Bay since 2013.
"All these products [are] from China, some are made in Jamaica," she said when showing NBC 26 around her store Monday afternoon. "But mostly I have everything imported, so yes it will be a little difficult with the taxes."
She says much of the beauty products, hair extensions, wigs and clothing she sells come from China, Mexico, Peru and other places. She worries about her customers being able to afford to shop with her if the price of her inventory goes up.
"If they go up, I go up," she said of her prices.
"(Wisconsin is) a heavy manufacturing state," St. Norbert College Economics and Data Analytics Professor Marc Schaffer said. "We're a maker state, we produce a lot of stuff."
Schaffer says tariffs are a tax on imports, which often times gets passed down to the end consumer. He says businesses like Ana Maria's aren't the only ones in Wisconsin that could feel the impact of the tariffs.
"For Wisconsin specifically, our biggest export country is to Canada," Schaffer said. "That's where we send [the] largest amount of our exports go to Canada followed by Mexico next."
Its not just about what we're sending out of Wisconsin, but what we're bringing in.
"We talk about automobiles, talk about lumber, these are all things we use in this state that actually matter," Schaffer said. "Fertilizers, plastics, these are solid imports coming in specifically from Canada to Wisconsin. So this isn't something that is a blip in the radar. If, and this is the big if, if it comes to actual fruition."
"I as a Latina, a Mexican woman, I always say up," Ortega said about the uncertainty of the tariffs. "I am a warrior, I do not give up."
Schaffer says what remains to be seen is whether the White House's tariffs are simply a political negotiation tactic being used in the moment or a long term policy decision for the Trump administration.
